Japanese
automaker Toyota once again outsold General Motors and
Ford in monthly car sales for January 2007, closing
the gap with Ford in the US market. It has already nudged
Ford of its pedestal as the No.2 in global auto sales
and is set to overtake it in the US as well by early
2007.

GM
has already warned that its January sales figures will
be down, again due to reduced sales to the rental-car
industry.

Toyota''s
year on year sales rose 9.5 per cent. The mid size Camry
and Prius have turned out to be its major profit earners
and the company said its results for January had never
been as high, with car sales climbing 13.1 per cent
while sales of trucks were 5 per cent higher.
Ford that makes more fuel-hungry cars, has been hit
by the Asian automakers who produce more energy-efficient
smaller cars, expects to post a 20 per cent decline
in US sales for the month of January 2007 compared to
January 2006.